


If you go where I can't follow

by Kirianna_May



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, I don't even really know where I'm going with this, I'll add more tags as it goes on, M/M, Roommates, Supernatural Elements, but he's a ghost, i know I put major character death over there, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 06:45:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13118259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirianna_May/pseuds/Kirianna_May
Summary: Keith has been able to see ghosts ever since he can remember, so he doesn't think much of it when he moves into a new apartment and basically ends up sharing his room with one. But what happens if you end up with a crush for someone you can barely even touch?





	If you go where I can't follow

**Author's Note:**

> I have like the beginning and most of the end planned for this, but the middle? who knows? So I'm open to suggestions if anyone wants. This is basically a really cliche friends to lovers thing if you don't think about Lance being a ghost lol.  
> Hope you guys enjoy :)

The air of the room almost feels thick with how dark it is around him, the blinds are closed and no light is coming in from outside.

*plink*

Keith’s eyes are wide open against the darkness, staring straight in front of him and if he concentrates hard enough he can almost see the ceiling above his head.

*plink*

Keith knows that it’s just a tiny, little drop of water falling from the faucet onto one of the plates left in the sink. 

He knows that no matter how hard he tries to close the tap, it’ll still start leaking in the middle of the night.

He also knows that such a small thing shouldn’t have any effect on his sleep, shouldn’t bother him this much… and yet here he is, awake in the pitch black of his room. The softest of sounds booming in his head like an hammer. The trees outside rustle softly in the wind and he almost gasps, turning his head to stare blindly in the direction of the window and almost imagining a shadow denser than the others moving right in front of him. 

He quickly shuts is eyes and wills his breathing to stay even, his chest burns with how fast his heart is beating. He wills himself to think of something else, and to let sleep come take him.

Minutes pass, he counts sheep, thinks of the football he lost that afternoon after he kicked it too far away and yet he stays awake.

A drop of water is going plink in a sink, in a kitchen literally located on the other side of the house, and he just can’t sleep.

He turns around in his bed a few times, wishes the water to stop dripping, pulls the covers over his head and curls up closing his eyes tightly once more, wishes for his father to be in the house at night just this once, and ultimately lets out a deep sigh.  
Keith might be small, but he isn’t a coward, he sleeps with the lights off after all, while most of the other kids at school still have a little light somewhere in their room.

He keeps one of the blankets wrapped around his head, the thickest and softest one he has, cause he likes how it presses on him, and he holds it close, letting it drape over his shoulders like a cape, and after another moment of hesitation he sits up, letting his naked feet touch the floor. One toe at a time, slowly and cautiously at first, until he can feel the cold wood against his skin, all the way from his toes to the balls of his feet. A slight shiver runs up his spine at how cold the wooden floor is.

Keith takes a deep breath and holds it as he gets up, careful not no make too much noise, even as the rustling of the sheets and the light groaning of the bed seem to be loud enough to be heard from outside.  
He lets out his breath slowly and takes a few steps, hoping with his whole heart to at least meet one of the nice ones if he has to.

Opening his door is always hard. He can feel his heart thumping fast against his chest, his feet shuffle nervously against each other, making the wooden floor creak slightly. He tries to take another deep breath as he puts his hand on the knob, but not much air manages to get in past the clenched muscles of his body.

The moment in which his door is open but he can’t see outside yet is probably the scariest one every time, so he tries to ignore his heart thundering in his ears and closes his eyes and exhales slowly before throwing the door open in one swift movement.  
When he dares to open his eyes again he’s relieved to see nothing but the empty corridor in front of him.

His breath comes shallow and in quick puffs as he climbs down the stairs, winching every time one of the steps groans under his feet.   
His small hand clenches on the wooden rail while the other stays tightly fisted into the blanket around his head, and if it is shaking a little, that is surely because it’s cold without socks on.

Crossing the kitchen to get to the sink is another feat. 

The large window on the left wall casts all kinds of strange shadows around the room, and even though the falling water drop is right in front of him, Keith almost can’t hear it anymore over the racket of his own heart and loud breathing. 

He swallows hard before hurrying across the kitchen, eyes straight in front of him, no matter how the shadows move around his feet or how the sound of something clattering to the floor comes from upstairs, he’s not going to look, he’s not going to look and it’ll be fine.  
He almost crashes against the counter, he’s going so fast, and his outstretched hand grabs frantically at the knob, twisting it as hard as he can, and the dripping mercifully stops.

Keith closes his eyes and lets out a sigh.   
He did it.  
He did it and all went well.

A rush of relief is already sweeping over him, but then his eyes fall onto the inexplicably completely dry surface of the sink and at the exact same moment a chilling breeze runs over the floor, swirling around his toes and making him shiver.  
There’s no stopping the small hiccup in the back of his throat that makes his shoulders hunch forward as his heart beat picks up again and his fingers go numb while his hands shake ever so slightly.

He really, really doesn’t want to turn.   
The nice ones never make the hair at the back of his neck stand up like this, and he childishly hopes that if he scrunches his eyes closed hard enough maybe he’ll find himself back in his bed. 

He hopes for it to be a dream so strongly that for a split second he truly feels like he’s safe under his blankets… until a bony hand places itself on his shoulder and he gasps, feeling it freezing him even through the warm layers of his blanket and pajamas.

He doesn’t want to cry, because he knows it’s useless, and he also knows that nothing really horrible is going to happen to him, but the one that approached him is so sad and so cold and so old and Keith can’t help the tears running down his face as he drowns in waves of emotions that aren’t his own, nor the sobs wracking their way out of his chest as he’s forced to turn around and stare into a pair of milky eyes peering at him behind long, grey strands of hair.

He crumples to the ground as an anguished cry fills his head, and he just keeps on crying, even after the cold, bony hand has let go of him.  
His own emotions resurfacing after a while, his own name coming back to him as the storm calms down and he’s left to shiver on the floor.  
Keith takes a long, shuddering breath around his sobs and wipes at his eyes, hoping that if he just keeps his eyes closed and doesn’t move, they’ll leave him alone for what is left of the night, hoping that his dad won’t be too mad when he comes back and finds him there, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the next day will be better.

***

The rain is tapping hard and fast on the frankly way too big umbrella his brother lent him. Keith is walking quickly up the street, looking for the address he’s been given, because of course it has to be in a place hard to find.

Keith is proud of his sense of direction, thank you very much, but this place is testing him, making him run up and down twice before spotting the right turn. After that he stands for a few minutes in front of what he can only describe as one of the saddest buildings in this area from what he’s seen so far.

He shrugs, one can’t really be too picky when offered a good opportunity in life.  
He guesses one can’t be too picky when one is a student either.  
He opens the door with the key he’s been given and starts climbing the stairs all the way up to the fifth floor because of course the lift would be broken.

He rings the doorbell and nobody answers, not really much of a surprise.   
Keith looks under the matt as he was told to, and finds a slip of paper instead of the key he was looking for.  
Some sort of obscure chemical formula greets him and he guesses it is some kind of hint for a game he’s 100% not willing to play; not now after a 3 hours flight and not ever.

In a last ditch attempt he looks under the small potted plant standing right next to the door, and finds another slip of paper.  
Keith is already huffing before he can even read it, and he’s greeted with a small, choppy hand writing informing him that cheating isn’t good.  
Immediately under that is a different handwriting, the letters traced in blue ink are loopy and thin and say ‘it’s okay not everybody can be smart’   
Keith is honestly already regretting his choice to move in this apartment because obviously its inhabitants are a pain   
‘flip the mat, the key should be taped there’

Keith lets himself be briefly grateful to this unknown person when he finds the spare key and makes his way inside.

As soon as he takes a step inside after closing the door behind him, Keith feels the familiar breeze and sighs, because obviously it doesn’t matter how new the place is, some ghost just has to be in there. 

By now, he’s mostly fine with the whole seeing ghosts thing, in the same way anybody would be fine with almost anything if it was a constant in their life.

Keith had found that ignoring a ghost had usually either very good results or very bad results, and the same went for noticing ghosts to be fair.  
So really, he guessed he’d just have to see what was going to happen and take a shot hoping for the best.  
The ghost living in this apartment would show up sooner or later, he was sure of that.

After a few tentative steps, Keith turns around a corner and finds the living room, where a girl is snoring loudly with her face pressed against a tablet on the table.

From what he can see of her, Keith deduces that she is his brother’s friend little sister, she does after all have pretty much the same hair as Matt.  
He goes to drop his bags into the bedroom closest to the kitchen, he’s pretty sure this is the room he’ll be occupying, since there’s almost nothing in there. After a few minutes during which he just looks around, a small part of him still trying to decide what kind of ghost might be living in here, he decides to go wake up the girl, cause he doesn’t want to be taken for a robber if he can help it.  
He sighs when he sees that a blanket is draped over her shoulders now.   
A blanket that definitely wasn’t there just a few minutes earlier.

He’s about to shake her awake when he hears a voice behind him   
“Yo, she hasn’t slept in like two days, don’t be so rude dude”

Keith jumps and turns around, cause he could have sworn none else was in the house, and to his surprise the guy standing behind him startles back as well

“When did you even get here!?” Keith hisses out

The boy just looks at him with wide eyes for a moment, before apparently recovering from the surprise and huffing “Uh, the name’s Lance, and I live here, so actually when did you get in, and why?”

Keith shrugs “I’ll be living here too”

Lance quirks an eyebrow at him “Oh really? And what room would be yours?”

“That one” Keith points 

“You wish” the other huffs out a laugh “that’s my room”

“No it’s not” Keith crosses his arms “that room’s completely empty”

The guy looks caught off guard for a second “Still my room” he chides, sticking out his tongue and hurrying to the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Keith stares at the closed door for a few seconds, before running after him, wrenching the door open and finding the room empty. That’s when he feels it again, that barely there breeze swirling at his feet, and he looks around to see the dark skinned guy once again, still grinning at him.

Keith stares at him and frowns “you’re a ghost..” his voice comes out more accusing than he had intended and the grin on the other’s face falters for a moment.

“Well, good job Sherlock” he retorts, grabbing Keith’s hood and pulling it over his eyes.

Keith tears it off his head once again, staring angrily at him and clenching his fists but the other only smirks wider “what, do you think I’m scared of you?”

“Just fuck off!” Keith scowls and turns around, ready to get out of the room just so that he doesn’t have to see his dumb face, but he freezes as soon as his eyes land on the bedroom’s door, which is open, the girl standing there, looking at him with her arms crossed

“I… was talking on the phone..” he tries to explain, but that only gets him a raised eyebrow

“Ssssuure you were” she nods “on you phone, the phone you left in the living room”

“Oh for fuck’s sake” he face palms 

“So, are you Keith or like, the worst burglar in history?”

“Keith, I’m Keith” he offers his hand “and you must be Katie?”

She looks him over once more “yeah, I’m Katie”

The ghost snickers behind him “oh man, she totally hates you, she always tells people to call her Pidge”

Keith resists the urge to tell him to piss off and speaks to her again “I’m sorry, you probably think I’m crazy”

She smirks “dude, I think you’re totally out of your mind, but you’re gonna pay part of the rent so I honestly couldn’t care less”

He just blinks at her “…okay?”

“Yep, okay” she huffs out as she steps away from the door 

“this is your room, that one over there is my room, you’ll regret it if you go in there, the other one is Hunk’s, you’ll meet him tomorrow and if you make noise when I’m studying you’re gonna fly off the window. That’s all, I’ll be in the living room, don’t come be social with me”

\---

Lance leans back in midair, he does it a lot, cause honestly the one good thing to come out of being a ghost is that he can float and furniture is now super lame. So he leans back and looks down at this new guy, this Keith who just arrived. He scrunches up his nose, who the hell still has a mullet? And who the hell can see ghosts? The answer to both questions seems to be sleeping in his bed right now. 

Lance hates that his friends would rent his room to some stranger… how long had it been since he died anyway? A month? Two? He doesn’t remember. The first days or months of being dead, it had been hard to be conscious, his mind was kind of drifting all over the place… 

So maybe Pidge and Hunk had every right to look for a new roommate by now, he was still gonna be bitter about it tho.

He wonders how this guy manages to sleep knowing full well that he’s in there with him, that he’s sharing a room with a ghost. He ponders about waking him up with textbook hunting stuff, like slamming doors, swishing curtains over closed windows, stuff like that. It would be fun, but he decides against it. Because he’s a decent person, and absolutely not because he misses being acknowledged as a thing that exists.

So he waits, watches Keith go though his usual morning routine, winching at the lack of hair products he uses 

“It’s a wonder you even still have hair at all if you treat it like this”.

Keith pointedly ignores his remarks, as he has been doing all morning. Lance suspects it’s because Pidge’s still in the house and he doesn’t want to look even crazier than he already did the day before.

It doesn’t mean he’s gonna stop chatting. Lance has always been the chatty type, not even being a ghost had stopped him from blabbering away to his friends who couldn’t hear him anymore, so now that this weird guy was here he wasn’t going to keep quiet.

“Are you kidding me? Black coffee? That’s it, that’s you breakfast? Are you doing it just to look cool? Cause you can’t possibly enjoy it, we do have cereals you know?”

He could see Keith’s eye twitch as he did his best to ignore his nagging while Pidge was obviously staring at what must have been a slightly weird display from her point of view.

Lance wasn’t surprised when she ended up leaving for her lessons way earlier than usual

“Aw, you made her run away, you’ve been staring at that wall like you wanted to stab a knife through it”

“I wish I could stab a knife through you” Keith growled back at him and Lance only grinned 

“Can’t stab a ghost I’m afraid”

“Do you ever shut up?”

“Nope, I’m just keeping you company”

Keith rolls his eyes and grabs his backpack, keeping pointedly quiet 

“Where are you going?”

“Out”

“Out where?”

“None of your business and stop talking to me”

 

As he walks down the street Keith tries to convince himself that things could have been worse, this ghost was a pain but at least wasn’t one of the angry, violent ones who would harm him, nor was he old enough to have forgotten that he used to be a person in the first place. He sighs, this was gonna be hard, but he wouldn’t complain, Shiro had done a lot to help him move and he refuses to fuck everything up.

He comes back to the apartment in the early evening, having gone through some of the job interviews he had scheduled while still in Houston, and is surprised to find someone new in the kitchen, a big guy busy cooking something that smelled incredibly nice. Lance is sitting on the counter, chattering away and commenting the recipe 

“Oh this is gonna be delicious, you should bake some meringues too, it’s been forever since you last made those-”

He stops when he sees Keith and waves at him “Hey! Say hi to Hunk, he’s my best buddy!”

“Uh…” Keith falters trying to stop looking weird for once in his life and when the guy’s eyes lift to look at him all he can do is ask awkwardly “you must be Hunk?” 

“Oh, hi!” he smiles happily, setting a pan on the stove “so you’re Keith, the guy who talks to himself?”

“What? No I’m not-” Keith tries to defend himself before remembering the horrible first impression from last night and just sighing, his shoulders slumping in resignation 

“..Yeah, I guess I’m the guy who talks to himself”

“You’re so weird, dude” Hunk looks at him with a curious smile before stepping away from the stove and patting his back strong enough to send him stumbling forward 

“You freaked out Pidge, you know?”

“I-I’m sorry?”

Hunk just shrugs “She’ll get used to you”

Keith just nods and does his best not to look in Lance’s direction or react to what he says for the rest of the evening. Which, to be honest, he suspects gives him an incredibly grumpy expression.

 

He’s glad when he can finally close his room’s door behind him and relax a bit until he hears the already familiar voice chide from behind him

“You know you look constipated when you try ignoring me?” 

Keith just groans   
“Will you please fuck off?”

“You’re the one occupying my room, I’m not going anywhere”

 

\---

 

Days go by, and Keith decides that he was wrong, this is bad. 

Lance is the most annoying ghost he’s ever met, he’d rather go back to the one that liked flinging him across the room because at the very least that one was quiet most of the time.

The current haunting he is experiencing on the other hand, isn’t quiet at all. Lance chatters from the very moment Keith opens his eyes in the morning and just doesn’t stop no matter what. He teases, mocks, and generally pesters him, asks hundreds of questions, criticizes basically everything he does and Keith is getting a constant headache from it because, on top of everything, needs to pretend he’s not hearing or seeing anything.

He’s not sure he’s gonna last long, but he has managed to get two good enough jobs and Shiro had helped him move and basically paid for most expenses, so he can’t just say he’s done with this already, he needs to make things work, no matter how.

Lance on his part is having quite a good time, this new guy is really easy to tease, and even tho he isn’t really over the idea of his friends replacing him yet, he likes that someone can finally hear him rant. He honestly doesn’t know how long it has been since he last spoke to someone, and he doesn’t like how restless he gets when too much time goes by without social interaction… Can he still call it social interaction now that he’s a ghost? 

Maybe he should just get used to it, meeting people who can see him must be pretty rare, so he probably shouldn’t rely on that. He doesn’t know, but Keith is there for now and he’s probably going to stay for a while, so that’s it, he’ll think about the future when it comes. In the meanwhile his new roommate is just really fun to annoy. 

 

It is really early in the morning, so early it could be late at night probably, and Lance is just floating around aimlessly because as it turns out, ghosts don’t really sleep, so he now has a whole lot of useless time to spare. 

He wonders briefly why he doesn’t just wake Keith up to annoy him, he has done it a lot of times in the last days and it has always been fun, the guy gets really damn mad and sends stuff flying his way every time, which cracks Lance up cause it’s not like he can get hit. But Lance guesses it was less fun seeing him wake up like a zombie only a coupe of hours later. 

Lance still doesn’t know what’s this guy’s job, cause Keith can be exceptionally tight lipped when he wants and he has been ignoring most of Lance’s questions about anything anyway. So he doesn’t know a lot about him yet.

Still, basically sharing a room with someone means very little privacy, so he knows his routines and is pretty sure he must be working most of the day and part of the evening. He has no idea why since the rent is kind of cheap there. 

All the same, Lance knows is that he isn’t that much of a dick to actually take away the few hours of sleep the dude has time to get. At least not while Keith hasn’t really done anything to give him reason to be petty. It doesn’t mean he’s not gonna wake him up blaring the worst song he can think of instead of letting Keith’s usual alarm ring.

 

“Fuck Lance, will you quit it with this stupid song?” 

Keith glowers hiding his head under the pillow while the intro to the Macarena cheerfully and loudly tumbles around the small room.

Lance just laughs, rolling around in mid hair 

“Nope! Rise and shine Mullet!”

“I don’t even have a mullet!” he snaps throwing the pillow in his direction and Lance only laughs more when it passes right through him 

“Good aim!”

And Keith knows Katie is in the living room getting ready to leave for her lessons and he can only imagine what kind of lunatic he must sound like to her.

 

He’s aware of the fact that he has started slipping after all, because ignoring someone as obnoxious as lance isn’t easy. So he finds himself nodding or frowning at thin hair while Lance talks to him, no matter who is in the room with them, and while in his own room Keith just can’t be bothered anymore, a whole month of ignoring him completely had done absolutely nothing to make Lance stop talking to him and had only given Keith a migraine, so he might as well look like some crazy person at this point.

He’s decided he’s gonna embrace it, Katie can’t possibly think any worse of him anyway, Hunk doesn’t seem to care all that much and this sis far from the first time people think him crazy.


End file.
